Some Edmonton residents upset with Telus over Internet upgrade

Some Edmonton residents are feeling bullied by Telus these days, as the company works to upgrade its network to Fibre-Optic lines.

In Hodgson and Terwillegar Towne, residents are complaining about torn up yards and loud construction.

Area resident Trisha Ladouceur tells Global News, headaches began well before that with aggressive door knocking by Telus salesmen.

“Our understanding was they had to have the majority of the people on the street sign on the dotted line before they could go ahead and do it,” she says. “So their tactic was keep pounding you until you did it.”

Ladouceur says they are not Telus customers, and have made it clear they don’t want the service, but she says, that didn’t stop workers trying to tear up parts of her property during installation.

“Their reasoning was ‘well, you may not want it, but the next people might,'” says Ladouceur. “Well, not my problem; we have no intention of leaving, we love our home, we love our community, we’re not going.”

Telus’ Richard Gilhooley says the free upgrades to the infrastructure being offered are an effort to “future proof” the city of Edmonton.

“The current network is going to be taxed by some of these new technologies, and new sort of uses for the Internet,” he explains. “In the case of fibre, what it offers people is a chance to take part in technologies that are emerging now, but may also emerge down the road.”

Gilhooley says Telus apologizes if there’s been issues with the neighbourhoods.

“One of the things we do when we go door-to-door, is we try to explain to people, as well as possible, what the kind of impact it’s going to be, obviously what the benefits are, but we also want to be transparent about the process of installation, for example, and to give them points of contact that they can reach out to if they do have concerns or questions.” (scb, ms)